"Blood Is Thicker Than Water"
It was dark underneath the house and smelled
like old dirt. It made me want to sneeze. I thought about crawling out long
enough to look up at what was left of the sun, long enough to finish off that
wishy-washy sneeze. But I was scared, so I sat on a pile of damp dirt and caught
my tears with my dirty hands.
Why couldn’t Daddy just die? If he
wasn’t around, we'd make out all right. It wouldn’t be long before I was old
enough to get a job. Annabelle got one and everybody knows she doesn’t have the
sense God gave lettuce.
When she gets paid, she lies about
the amount; thinks nobody knows she’s giving most of it to her boyfriend so she
won’t have to bring it home. If Daddy finds out he’ll knock her teeth down her
throat and dare her to swallow them. If you ask me, Annabelle is about an inch
away from running out on all of us. Ever since she started working and silly
old Floyd started sniffing after her like a dog in heat, she’s been the devil
to be around. I wish she'd hurry up and get it over with.
I was in the middle of asking God to consider
taking Daddy back so he wouldn't hurt us anymore when I heard Pearl, Lonnie and
Rusty racing up to the house. Before I could call out to them, I heard their
loud footsteps on the porch and then the sound of the screen door banging shut
behind them.
“I won. I won,” Rusty yelled as other
feet stomped up the wooden steps after him. Pearl laughed when Lonnie called
Rusty a big, fat cheater. Then there was total silence up above me.
It was too quiet. I figured they'd
found Mama dead. Daddy had finally killed her with his mean old temper and hard
fists. Something inside of me wasn’t a bit surprised. Hadn’t he already
murdered one innocent person? I would always remember Orville J. Tinsley, the
ugly Bible salesman, even if Daddy did forget all about him.
I knew my sister Pearl inside and out,
so I pictured what she was probably doing up there in the house. In my mind’s
eye, I saw her tending to Mama. It made me feel some better to think that our
mother was getting attention, if she was still alive, that is.
Right about then, I heard Daddy roar
like a bellowing bear at my sister. “You want me to give you some of what
I just give your mama?”
“No sir,” she said. “But she’s hurt
bad, Daddy. Look at her. She’s bleeding. We got to do something for her. You
can see that, can’t you, Daddy?”
I heard heavy footsteps pounding the
floorboards above me. There was a scrambling noise and I figured it was Pearl
trying to get away from Daddy.
“Don’t you run off from me,
young’un,” he yelled. “You git your sorry ass over here right this minute. I’ll
teach you to sass me and try to run off like a rat. Git over here, I said.”
There was a storm of loud sounds
then. Lonnie and Rusty were both crying out and Pearl was yelling for Daddy not
to hit her. I covered my ears and squeezed my eyes as tight as I could. It
didn’t begin to muffle their cries and it didn’t keep the new tears inside of
me either. I heard the first crack of Daddy’s belt even with my hands closed
over my ears. Pearl was getting the might of his wrath. Lonnie and Rusty
somehow managed to sneak back out to the barn so I didn’t hear any more out of
them.
After Daddy hit my sister every which
way and twice as hard on the way back with her sobbing steady through it all,
things got real still. Pearl quieted down while Daddy took a breather. The last
sound I heard was squeaking bedsprings which made me fear that he had drug
Pearl’s skinny little body out of the kitchen and into his bed. Some birthday
present, I thought.
I thought about Mama telling me and
Pearl that blood was thicker than water. But then as soon as the word blood
came to my mind, I saw Mama plain as clean glass lying on the kitchen floor
with blood all over her face. I believed Daddy had killed her, so blood being
thicker than water didn't make sense. I thought and prayed, thought and prayed
until I fell asleep.
When I woke up, light was creeping
through the ragged foundation boards of the house. I had hid under there for eight
hours, nine maybe. After I didn’t hear any movement above, I steeled myself to
go up there and find about Mama. If she was not dead, then she was hurt bad and
I needed to help her.
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